Daily Times

The level of jubilation over Sadiq Khans appointment as mayor of London is still fresh in our minds. We were all proud that a Pakistani origin Muslim became the mayor of a major metropolitan city.

Now let us remember the resentment some members of our society felt when Dr. Atif Mian was asked to give up his membership of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC) on September 7, 2018. This only happened because Mian belonged to a sect declared non-Muslim by the Second Amendment to the 1973 Constitution, and further prohibited from calling themselves Muslims by an ordinance passed by a dictatorial regime.Coincidentally, the Second Amendment was also passed on September 7.

It is not just the Ahmedi community that has been deprived of equal rights by the Pakistani state. Non-Muslims do not have the same opportunities as Muslims in this country. In fact they are barred from the being head of state. The wording of the Constitution is also discriminatory, as it uses the pronoun ‘he’ when referring to human rights and important public offices, which excludes women. This, however, needs a separate article altogether.

Non-Muslims and the Ahmediyya community were an equal and important part of the Pakistan Movement. Dewan Bhadur Singha, for example, founded the All India Christian Association in 1942, which offered unconditional support to Mr Jinnah. Then there was Alvin Robert Cornelius, a judge, jurist and legal philosopher who provided great support to Jinnah and the Pakistan Movement. We also must not forget Joginder Nath Mandil, a Dalit Hindu who worked as a member and temporary President of the constituent assembly of Pakistan.Last but not the least, Sir Zafarullah Khan, an Ahmadi, acted as the first Foreign Minister of Pakistan and the first Pakistani and Asian to preside over the UNGeneral Assembly and International Court of Justice. He also drafted Pakistan Resolution but we hardly come across their contributions.

The Quaid’s first speech in the first constituent assembly laid the guidelines and the vision for Pakistan. Unfortunately, these guidelines were lost somewhere in the pages of history and the weak political leadership couldn’t maintain a balanced relationship among institutions, resulting in the intervention of religiopolitical parties like Jamaat-e-Islami,Jamiat-e- Ulema-e-Islam and Majlis Ihrar-ul-Islam. This also paved the way for dictatorial interventions, leading to a weak political structure and causing a total deviation from the core components of nation-building, entangling national politics with toxic religious fundamentalism.

The grounds for this creeping fundamentalism were laid by Bhutto himself. He did this to prove that he was a pious Muslim, to win the support of religious parties, to help the country recover from the creation of Bangladesh and India’s nuclear tests. Since then, more and more space has been acceded to religious thugs

We must highlight the Quaid-e-Azam’s August 11 speech in our textbooks wherever possible. We must talk about the inclusivity of the state of Medina, where the rights of Jews and Christians were safeguarded

Pakistan is a Muslim Majority country and all of its major public and political offices are occupied by Muslims. It is therefore, difficult to understand how non-Muslims could pose any threat to the country’s religious status. Why then, are we bent on persecuting religious minorities? Dr Atif Mian is well recognised the world over and considered one of the most brilliant economists alive today. Yet, we rejected him for his personal religious beliefs. We have similarly disowned Dr Abdus Salam.

Even the department named after him in the Quaid-e-Azam University was proposed to be renamed. Will such steps blur his capabilities and service to the country? Why are we so threatened by minorities? Is it because we lack confidence in our own beliefs? Is the faith of any nation so week that it will be threatened by the appointment of a non-Muslim economic advisor?

The Pakistani state has failed to inculcate the core values of inclusion. To us, a person’s status as a human plays second fiddle to their religious affiliation, caste and gender. By and large,our citizenry has failed to see that it is by mere coincidence that they were born into Muslim households.

The cure to this malaise lies in early years of education. This is the only way we can promote inclusivity in our society. We must highlight the Quaid-e-Azam’s August 11 speech in our textbooks wherever possible. We must talk about the inclusivity of the state of Medina, where the rights of Jews and Christians were safeguarded.This process must begin immediately, as the country has a long way to go before it can start healing from the religious fundamentalism that has plagued it in recent decades.

The writer has experience in the field of education and is currently working as a resource person in the development sector

Published in Daily Times, September 18^th 2018.